With today marking six months until the next election, Federated Farmers says the Government is rapidly running out of time to fix a broken freshwater system.
Freshwater spokesperson Colin Hurst says while progress has been made repealing or replacing some of the previous Government’s unworkable freshwater rules, far too many of the rules still sit idle on the books.
“Former Environment Minister David Parker brought in a swag of poorly written freshwater rules in mid-2020,” Hurst says.
“The current Government came into office promising to unwind them and put things right for farmers.
“Farmers are starting to get really worried that, with only six months to go until the election, a number of those promises haven’t been fulfilled.
“The clock is really ticking now and we’re getting genuinely concerned they’ll run out of time.”
When elected, the Coalition Government said it would replace Labour’s freshwater targets with rules allowing more flexibility.
Nearly three years on, Parker’s National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management 2020 remains law.
“It’s good the Government has hit pause on regional councils coming up with new rules to try to achieve the unachievable freshwater targets,” Hurst says.
“Early drafts of these plans showed huge areas of farmland would need to be retired to even come close to the targets.
“But in the background, Parker’s policy still sits on the books, which means resource consents must be tested against it and Environment Court decisions will also consider it.
“It’s continuing to cause real headaches across the country.
“There’s also the risk that any change in Government would mean it can be immediately turned back on and implemented.”
Hurst says the current Government also promised changes to make vegetable growing and on-farm water storage permitted activities – but again, that’s yet to happen.
New Freshwater Farm Plan regulations also haven’t been completed, he adds.
Many of these changes hinge on the Government delivering an improved replacement to the Resource Management Act (RMA).
Mark Hooper, Federated Farmers RMA reform spokesperson, says bringing in that new legislation was one of the Government’s flagship policies.
“The RMA is by far the biggest handbrake on the growth of our agricultural sector and rural economies,” he says.
“From expensive resource consents to unachievable freshwater targets, these difficulties for farmers all sit under the RMA legislation.
“We were really pleased when the Government introduced two bills to replace the RMA last year, but a deep dive into the wording revealed some significant flaws.
“The Natural Environment Bill, in particular, is so poorly drafted that it risks making things even worse for farmers than the current RMA.”
Hooper says a major gap right now is the lack of detail around what will replace the current national policy framework.
“What we’ve got in front of us with the Natural Environment Bill is essentially the framework for the new system.
“But a lot of the real detail will sit in national policy direction and national standards, and that’s the part we haven’t seen yet,” he says.
“That creates uncertainty. Farmers are being told change is coming, but we still don’t know what the replacement for things like the National Policy Statement will actually look like.”
He says, in the meantime, farmers remain stuck operating under the very rules the Government has promised to replace.
“Farmers were told there would be new national standards for things like vegetable growing, water storage and gravel extraction, but none of that has happened yet.
“So, despite all the talk of major reform and quick wins, nothing has really changed in practice and the old system is effectively still live.”
Hooper says that uncertainty is weighing on farmer confidence and investment decisions.
“People want clarity. They want to know what the rules of the game are before they make long-term investment decisions – and right now, that certainty just isn’t there.”
Hurst says credit must go to the Government for moving quickly to repeal Labour’s replacement RMA in 2023, and make fixes to stock exclusion rules and winter grazing rules.
“Farmers also breathed a sigh of relief at last year’s law change to roll over existing resource consents into a promised new resource management system.
“Those are all good things – but the job is far from done.”
He says there’s cautious optimism about new Environment Minister Nicola Grigg, who comes from a strong farming background.
“For Nicola Grigg, I think there’s a real opportunity here to cut through the noise and deliver what farmers have been waiting for.
“She’s shown she understands the issues, but I guess the challenge now is whether she can turn that into action.”
With only months left in the Government’s term, Hurst says time is running short.
“Farmers are watching closely, because what happens next will shape how this works on the ground for years to come.
“The Government needs to get cracking.”
